The 18 Easiest Ways to Earn Free Gift Cards FAST in 2019

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Best Ways to Earn Free Gift Cards

#1) Swagbucks

Quick summary: Swagbucks is one of the best survey sites, both in terms of how points are earned and how much the service has paid out to its members (over $300 million so far). You can earn points by doing online shopping, filling out surveys, playing games, using a special search engine, or even by watching short videos.

There are videos in many different categories — like travel, entertainment, home, and games — so you’ll always have something to watch that matches your interests.

The sign-up process is quick and free. All you need to do is provide your name and email address.

Swagbucks makes it easy to exchange your points for gift cards from many top retailers, including Amazon, eBay, Target, Starbucks, Walmart, Sephora, Nordstrom, Best Buy, and more.

You can get cash back offers on a wide variety of brands and products. And those products are ones you typically buy at the grocery store, such as milk, eggs, and bread. But Ibotta isn’t just for groceries; you can also get rewarded for buying items such as cosmetics and apparel — often, even when you buy them online.

You’ll add the offers before you go shopping. When you’re done, you’ll redeem your offers by taking a picture of your receipt.

When you need money, just transfer your balance to PayPal or Venmo, or get a gift card.

#3) Drop Rewards

Sign up here for Drop RewardsSign-up bonus: NoneMinimum withdrawal: Whenever you have enough for a reward; the lowest is typically 5,000 Drop points ($5)

Quick summary: This money-making site is a no-brainer. When you shop for products or services, you might as well be rewarded for doing so. And with Drop, you are — you earn free money.

After you sign up, you’ll link any credit cards or debit cards you typically use for your purchases. If you don’t want to link them all, just pick a designated card to start with and see how it works for you.

Every time you buy something with your linked card at a participating store, your Drop account will earn points. You can save your points until you have enough stored up to cash them out for the reward you want.

#4) Survey Junkie

Quick summary: Another survey site, Survey Junkie helps companies figure out how to improve their products and services. That helps you in two ways: first, it gives you access to better products in the future, when companies take the advice they’re given; and second, you get rewarded for the information you provide.

After you sign up, be sure to fill out your profile. Doing so will help the service match you to the right surveys, which means you’ll spend less time seeing if you qualify and more time earning points. When you earn enough points, they can be swapped for prepaid Visas, gift cards to popular retailers like Amazon, or cash.

And you can feel confident that Survey Junkie isn’t a scam — the company has a great reputation and more than 10 million members.

This can be a good choice no matter your age. You can make money in college during your downtime between classes. Or you can fill out surveys while on your lunch break at work.

#5) MyPoints

Quick summary: This site has been in business since 1996, which is a long time in the online world. If you’re the type who looks at longevity as proof of a good business, you may like this one.

You can earn points by completing surveys, playing games, or watching videos. When you’re ready to cash those points out, you can get gift cards, travel miles, or even cash through your PayPal account.

#6) InboxDollars

Quick summary: If earning free gift cards for completing surveys and doing other tasks sounds appealing to you, check out InboxDollars. This site is another popular one in the survey world. It has rewarded its members with more than $57 million so far.

There are many ways to earn with InboxDollars. In addition to surveys, you can play online games and read emails — you can even get rewarded just for searching the web!

Also, if you like saving money with coupons, the site offers tons that you can print for free. And if you shop online, you can earn cash for that too.

Joining is free and easy. You’ll get that $5 sign-up bonus just for taking a minute to sign up. And you don’t have to have any particular skills or talent to start earning. It couldn’t be simpler!

The Chase Freedom card has a $150 sign up bonus after spending $500 in the first three months. You can then earn 5% on certain spending categories that rotate quarterly. Options for redeeming your rewards include gift cards to popular retailers like Amazon, statement credits, or cash back.

The bigger spenders out there should consider the Chase Sapphire Preferred card. This card comes with a 60,000 point sign-up bonus after spending $4,000 in the first three months with only a $95 annual fee. You’ll then earn two points for every dollar you spend at restaurants and on travel.

#9) Opinion Outpost

Quick summary: Opinion Outpost gives you the means to earn rewards for sharing your opinions through online surveys. These surveys often include questions about electronics, politics, or meals you’ve eaten.

Companies pay Opinion Outpost for the information they collect from their members. And Opinion Outpost shares its bottom line with you.

For a chance at a bigger slice of the pie, every survey you take gives you an entry in a quarterly $10,000 prize drawing.

#10) Personal Capital

Quick summary: One of the easiest ways right now to earn a free Amazon gift card is by signing up for Personal Capital. You’ll get a $20 gift card just for signing up and linking one investment account.

Personal Capital is a budgeting app that tracks all of your accounts in one place and customizes your portfolio. You’ll be able to develop a personalized investment strategy to take your finances to the next level.

#11) Dosh

Quick summary: This is another rewards site where you can earn money for your shopping habits. You’ll sign up and link the debit and credit cards that you generally shop with. Thousands of stores participate in Dosh.

You’ll be given cash back that you can transfer to your bank account, use for gift cards, or donate to charities.

#12) Amazon Trade-In Program

Sign-up bonus: NoneMinimum withdrawal: N/A

Quick summary: Do you have things around the house that you no longer use? Maybe you have an old gaming console, books, or cameras? If so, you might be able to earn an Amazon gift card for sending those items to Amazon.

The only drawback is that you can’t send in everything you’ll want to get rid of. But you’ll know immediately if your item is accepted. The instructions are easy to follow, too.

If you’re interested in learning how to make money on Amazon, this is one proven method. It’s great to do as a way to get some Christmas money. You’ll just be trading in stuff you aren’t using anyway.

#13) Nielsen Computer and Mobile Panel

Quick summary: You can earn $50 per year in passive income just for installing the Nielsen Computer and Mobile Panel on your smartphone or other compatible device. The only time you have to do anything is when you want to check your account balance to see how much is available in rewards. When you’re ready, just cash it out and enjoy!

Those kicks can then be cashed in for merchandise or gift cards. And to top it all off, you can also get discounts on some of the items you buy.

#15) MTurk

Sign-up bonus: NoneMinimum withdrawal: $1

Quick summary: With Amazon’s MTurk, you can earn cash or Amazon gift cards by doing easy online tasks. Some of the things you can do to rack up rewards include data entry, research, or taking surveys.

Joining is free and easy, and you can start making money immediately. It can be a nice side gig, but you don’t want to rely on this for full-time income because the pay is usually quite low. Still, if you have free time on your hands, it can be an easy way to earn a little extra money or a few gift cards.

#16) Cash in Your Coins (Coinstar)

Sign-up bonus: N/AMinimum withdrawal: N/A

Quick summary: Coinstar kiosks are available in many grocery stores and other retail establishments, and allow you to easily swap your coins for larger currency. Like all kiosks of this nature, Coinstar charges a small fee for the service of counting your metal money and exchanging it for paper dollars. But if you want to keep every cent, you can get a no-fee gift card instead.

If you’re feeling generous, Coinstar also lets you make a tax-deductible charity donation.

#17) BeFrugal

Quick summary: With BeFrugal, you’ll get up to 40 percent cash back for purchases you make at qualifying online stores. And there are a lot of stores that qualify — more than 5,000, in fact. As a member, you’ll also get coupons and deals that will save you money.

BeFrugal has some of the highest cash back rates out of all the shopping sites listed here.

#18) Mr. Rebates

Quick summary: With Mr. Rebates, you can get cash or gift cards for your online purchases. It’s an established site, founded in 2002. Although its name sounds similar to Ebates (another online shopping site) it’s a different site entirely.

The nice thing about cash back sites is that you can earn a bonus from all of them. So, even though you might not use each one exclusively, in many cases, signing up for multiple cash back sites allows you to earn multiple bonuses.

About The Author

R.J. Weiss is the founder and editor of The Ways To Wealth, a Certified Financial Planner™, husband and father of three. He's spent the last 10+ years writing about personal finance and has been featured in Forbes, Bloomberg, MSN Money, and other publications.

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